The Slime Tree
by Frozen Fate
Summary: When the Big Bang occurred, many historical maps and locations disappeared. But one day, Evan remembers one in particular. Not one he likes, or one he preferred. It wasn't one he loved or one he hated. But it was the one he remembered. This is a response to YukiSkye's Challenge.


**might be slightly AU...  
**

**(response to YukiSkye's challenge)**

**PART ONE**

**The Books**

What made Evan suddenly remember the slime tree, he didn't know. But one day, he found himself going to Grendel the Really Old's library to inquire about it. The slime tree wasn't his favourite place, far from it. It wasn't even a place he liked. He remembered the first time he went there and almost died because of it.

But… he wondered what happened to the slimes living there. He wondered where they would have gone. He wondered if they were still alive. Like many areas after the big bang, it had gone missing. From asking around Ellinia, Evan discovered that it had been there for as long as any of the long-living fairies could remember. It might have been there since before humans came to Victoria Island.

Evan wasn't really sure, but he knew that Grendel was really old. He was even older than some of the fairies despite only being human. Evan had heard somewhere that Grendel was a THOUSAND years old, but Evan didn't get how he could be. I mean, he was just human right?

That's how Evan found himself at the heart of Ellinia, (which until very recently had been the most annoying place to reach at the very top of Ellinia), the library. He hesitated before knocking – should he really get into a study of the slime tree? Is it really a good use of time? It would probably be a better idea to convince Mir to _'use the bathroom'_ on his head. But the tiny voice in Evan's head called 'Curiosity' would not resist. It would simply whisper until it got its way.

The door to the library was never locked, it was merely a formality that Evan knocked. Grendel, as usual, was floating in the same place. He was reading a book, and muttering to himself. Evan didn't blame him. Being a teacher must've been hard, especially when you teach thousands of people. Evan didn't know how thousands of people came from Maple Island when the population there was under a hundred, but it wasn't something he felt like going into.

"Evan. What brings you here?" Grendel asked irritated. He commanded the magic library to bring him another book, before turning back to Evan.

"Err… Grendel? What do you know about the Slime Tree? Beca-"

"Do not speak of that tree in this library, Evan." Grendel commanded. Evan wondered what was wrong with talking about a tree. Maybe if he asked Grendel when he seemed really irritated, he would find out.

"Why?" he asked.

"Evan. I said I did not want to speak of that topic."

"But why?"

"I said I didn't want to."

"Bu-"

"Evan. Get out." Grendel raised his tone and pointed his staff at Evan. The younger magician said nothing. If Grendel really wanted to get Evan to forget about the topic, he should've just said that there was a tree and slimes came there. Or something else that was boring like that. Then, his curiosity would be satisfied, and he would move on. But telling him NOT to do something? It just made Evan even more curious. Why would Grendel not want Evan to know about such a topic? There was bound to be something interesting there… right?

And so Evan plotted. It wasn't a very good plot. It probably wasn't even going to work. His plan was simply to walk in at night, hope that Grendel was asleep, and try to find a book in the enormous library about the Slime Tree. Of course, the magic aid in the library would help. He would need to call out names of books or authors to find certain books. Grendel had set it up many years earlier after spending a good month looking for a particular book.

Mir had supported his plan. As flawed as it may be, the Onyx Dragon wanted just as much as Evan, maybe a little more, to find out what the secret of the Slime Tree was. What if the secret of the Slime Tree was that there was no secret? The possibilities were endless.

At midnight Evan prepared himself. Meaning he got up, used the bathroom, and stood outside the library pondering whether he should do it or not. He decided to go for it. Why not? What would he lose? Other than potentially being evicted from the library and losing it as a source of information he'd probably need someday. But for now, Evan was fine with it. After all, making an extremely old and wise respected mage angry was a good thing right?

Evidently, Evan did not think things through very well. But he was lucky (he hadn't dumped all of his stats into luck for nothing!). Grendel was normally working on some of his research or studies. Occasionally, he'd be writing part of his novels called "Guide to Magic For Dummies". So far there was up to 50 novels, and the list was still growing. Magic was complex.

So why was Evan lucky? Grendel had fallen asleep. Normally, when this happened, as it was not an irregular occurrence, the books in his hands would fall to the floor and crash. The resulting sound would wake him up. He repaired the books after. Though this time, a passing-by mage happened to be underneath Grendel. A head makes less sound than a wooden floor when a book hits it – who knew?

Evan snuck in and stepped carefully over the unconscious mage. Evan didn't know why an unconscious mage was just lying down underneath Grendel, but he decided he would ask Grendel sometime. Remembering the proper words to summon the library aid, he began to randomly list off names he thought might have information on the Slime Tree.

"Slime Tree."

"_Invalid."_

"Tree of Slimes?"

"_Invalid."_

"The Habitat of Slimes?"

"_Invalid. Warning, you may only attempt 3 more times before the system goes through the lockdown procedure."_

"umm… Slime Tree: a History?"

"_Invalid. Warning, you may only attempt 2 more times before the system goes through the lockdown procedure."_

"I got it, The Slime Tree!"

"_Invalid. Warning, you may only attempt 1 more times before the system goes through the lockdown procedure."_

Upon hearing this, Evan groaned. Then he banged his head on the wall a few times.

_Processing… Processing… Two books are available under that name in the hidden storage space behind the magic barrier. System will retrieve them as soon as possible._

Evan looked up in surprise as he realized his groans and slamming his head on the wall got him something. What it was, he didn't know. But he did wonder what language it would have been in. Evan followed the blue magic figure as it pushed the unconscious mage aside and drew a rune. The rune promptly exploded. Evan was nearly flung out of the room from the shockwave.

_Books have been retrieved. Which language do you prefer? English or Unspecified?_

Evan didn't know how to respond. For one, he didn't know what an 'unspecified' was. Or where it was from. As Evan didn't respond, the magic system decided to be safe and bring both. Evan found out that the English version was the translated version of the 'unspecified' one. He wondered who translated it; the words of the unspecified language looked like someone had poured water on the book and traced the path it flowed. During an earthquake.

Evan looked up at the sleeping Grendel, who probably should have been woken from the explosion, and could wake at any moment. He decided not to take the risk of staying and instead left to find somewhere safe to read. If Grendel found out he had blown up part of the library, Evan assumed that the mage would not be happy.

Evan decided that it would probably be safe reading beside Wing the Fairy. He didn't feel like traveling more, and Mir had insisted on sleeping there because he was tired. So Evan sat beside the human-disliking fairy in a conveniently placed chair.

Wing had just finished his work, when a dragon and an odd human with old books sat on his chair. _His chair._ Not today.

"Get off my chair!" Wing yelled. The startled boy sitting on the chair looked up from the old book he was about to read and froze. Perhaps the human had figured out what a large crime sitting in _his chair_ was, as an inferior race. As the human did not move, Wing nudged him to see if that would do the trick.

It did. Evan lost his balance and fell of the platform. Wing didn't seem to worry that he just sent Evan free-falling from the top of Ellinia. After all, he could fly couldn't he? After all, he reasoned, humans weren't completely useless were they?

Evan was lucky that he remembered to use dragon blink. As unwieldy and annoyingly random it was, it saved his life. He found himself beside Mar. He called Mir up to him and then leant against the dragon. He would finally be getting a good look at the books. He brought up the English version, as he had no idea what to do with the unspecified one, and read the title out loud.

**The Slime Tree, The History, And The Wizard's Journal**

**(Translated from the language of Slimes, by Grendel)**

**By Royun**

**i'll do the second part later. parts of this are still being edited right now too.  
Idea came from suddenly remembering the slime tree. and that one little spot where you could attack from but not be attacked.**


End file.
